Astros’ Galarraga makes modest gains in loss to Cubs

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CHICAGO — Armando Galarraga realizes how silly it sounds to be pleased on an individual level with this outing — five innings, five runs allowed in a 7-1 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

But he’s sticking with the story and it’s not laughable if treated as a good first step in turning around his early Astros career.

“I thought I was mechanically way better,” Galarraga said Monday night. “I (allowed) five runs so it seemed like I didn’t throw the ball really good, but I think I got better. Maybe it doesn’t sound right because I gave up so many runs, (like) I can’t be happy with this start.”

After walking seven and six in his last two starts, he found the zone quite well. He walked just two — one opposing pitcher Jeff Samardzija — and struck out two.

The result was a lot of contact and enough big contact that the night went downhill for him progressively. Galarraga gave up two-run home runs to Darwin Barney in the second and Alfonso Soriano in the fifth for 80 percent of the runs he allowed.

“Other than that, believe it or not, I think it was a better start than the last couple,” Galarraga said. “I threw more strikes, threw everything around the zone. I just missed these two.”

Manager Brad Mills noted his biggest issue was being unable to finish off hitters when he did attack the zone and get ahead, though Mills believes he has the stuff to come around on that.

With five runs in five innings pitched, Galarraga owns a 5.75 ERA and a perfectly even strikeout-to-walk ratio — something no pitcher is shooting for — in his brief Astros tenure.
Meanwhile, the offense was back to some old habits as it had begun to turn the corner on the strikeout plague that affected them early this summer. Not so against Samardzija, a righthanded power pitcher who was mowing them down.

Samardzija struck out 11 in seven innings, including five batters in a row at one point. He got Jose Altuve to end the third, Brett Wallace, Steve Pearce and Justin Maxwell in the fourth and Jason Castro to start the fifth.

“I know it was only the second inning, but after he got that lead, it seemed like he really started throwing the ball well and it was really tough to get anything going,” Mills said.

The only hitter who could solve Samardzija for any damage was Brandon Barnes, who as a pinch hitter for Galarraga in the sixth led off the inning with his first major league home run to left-center.